Girl… You Might Be Burnt Out

I didn’t think I was burnt out. I just thought I was having a week.

You know the kind.
Where everything feels slightly off, but not enough to call it a breakdown.
Just enough to make you feel like you’re moving through your life a little… disconnected.

I was sleeping more. Not the kind of sleep that restores you. The kind that feels like hiding.

I was eating my way through my pantry.
Not because I was hungry like that, but because I needed something. Something comforting. Something consistent.

I was calling off work. Irritable. Off my routine in a way that didn’t feel like me.

And if you know me, you know my routine is my anchor. It’s how I stay grounded. It’s how I come back to myself.

So when that started slipping, I should’ve known.

But burnout is quiet. It doesn’t always announce itself. It just slowly pulls you out of yourself until one day you look up and think,

“Why don’t I feel like me anymore?”

What really humbled me was having someone else name it. Another professional.

Sitting on the other end of the call, explaining something I talk to my clients about Monday through Friday.

And I just sat there like, “Oh… well that makes sense.” And then, almost immediately, I felt it.

Shame.

Because in my head I was like, Girl… you know better. But that “you should have known better” voice? It’s loud… and it’s wrong. “Should have” language is wild in moments like this. Because it assumes that awareness automatically equals protection. And it doesn’t.

The truth is, I invest a lot into myself. My habits matter to me. My routines matter to me. The way I show up for myself and for others matters to me.

So yeah, it sucks to be here. It’s frustrating to realize that even with all of that intention, all of that effort, I still hit a point where my body said, “We’re done for now.” And I had to listen. Because sometimes life will sit you down. Not because you failed. But because something needs to change.

And I have to say this…. especially for us. Because I see it all the time. It’s researched. It’s documented. It’s real. Burnout looks different in us.

We don’t always stop. We don’t always collapse. We keep going. We show up. We handle it. And because we’re still functioning… we convince ourselves we’re fine.

But functioning and being well are not the same thing. And then life keeps happening on top of it.

The bills.
The work.
The responsibilities.
The world… which, let’s be honest, feels like it’s doing entirely too much right now.

Every day feels like a Boondocks episode that went a little too far. Part of me is scared. And the other part of me is like…I’m Black. I have never known a life that didn’t require resilience.

This world was built by people who look like me, but not always built with my ease in mind. And still we’ve survived every version of it. There’s something in that.

Something grounding.
Something ancestral.

Like somewhere in my body, there’s a quiet knowing that says: You’ve done this before. You’ll get through this too. So now I’m not trying to rush out of this. I’m not trying to fix it overnight. I’m not trying to force myself back into who I was last week.

I’m just… coming back to myself. Slowly.

I’m checking back in with my mindfulness. With my breath. With my body. I’m practicing being where my feet are planted. Accepting what is,
without immediately trying to change it. Trusting what’s coming,
without trying to control it. And most importantly trusting myself to move through this in a way that actually nurtures my mind and my body.

If you’ve been feeling off… tired in a way that rest doesn’t quite fix… till showing up but not fully there… This might not just be a bad week. You might be burnt out. And that doesn’t make you weak. It means you’ve been carrying a lot for a long time. So tonight…we’re not fixing everything. We’re not catching up on everything we fell behind on. We’re not forcing ourselves back into routine like nothing happened. We’re resting where we can.Doing what we can. Letting that be enough.

Because if burnout takes time to build…it’s going to take time to heal. And we deserve that time.

Missed y’all xoxox